Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)

by Suzanne Collins

Something steels inside me, and I think, You are on a high horse, mister. And someday someone will knock you off it straight into your grave.

Soft footfalls approach and a small young woman appears. I recognize her immediately. The black-haired girl from District 3 who won last year’s Hunger Games. “Hello, I’m Wiress. One of your mentors.”

It’s Mags, a victor from District 4.

It’s Beetee, a victor from District 3. A cold dread washes over me as the puzzle pieces come together. Ampert is neither a lunatic nor a liar. His father has accompanied him to the Capitol because he’s a victor. And therefore a mentor, assigned to coach his own child to his death in the Fiftieth Hunger Games.

I was then shot 57 times

“And they made you be his mentor?” I ask. “It’s part of the punishment. Watching what are almost certainly the last hours of my son’s life. They even gave me a booth in training, which mentors don’t traditionally attend, so I wouldn’t miss a minute. If I wasn’t here to witness it, there would be no point.”

My Shayla :(

“So, if it’s a machine, it can be broken, right?”